This, too, is Paris

EuroNews does a segment called "No Comment' where they just show video without commentary or explanation. It's really powerful. Occassionally uneventful (when you strip away all that we inject to create drama...).

This is my No Comment. Only to mention that it's a photo taken in my arrondissement at a sit-in against homelessness...where homeless people literally constructed a contained shantytown of tents, blankets and boxes. And they stayed there for months.

Photo taken by Jimmy Louchart of the blog Paris Environs

Jimmy Louchart / CC BY 2.0

It could be worse

There are a lot of crappy jobs out there. When I was little I thought the worst possible job belonged to the garbage man. Today a new one tops my list. A jack-hammer operator. There is one across the street from me. All day he's been starting and stopping with that most horrible machine. Not only is it jolting him around, he's wearing a helmet and ear protection....but he's the brunt of hostility from every business person and resident on this street trying to work, live or just watch tv. Even the passer-bys are irritated by his work. Unfortunately for the jack-hammer operator, he is the one to blame for the lack of peace today.

Je suis américaine

Every French newspaper had his photo covering the entire front page. There were photos from his childhood within, entire spreads and special supplements. The French are SO happy about Barak Obama. (And well, I wouldn't be writing this if I wasn't SO happy too!!) I wanted to blog the very day after the election because the energy was palpable. My brother Jon called to get a guage of the internation response....which I confirmed to be quite positive. There were parties upon parties throughout the city...though most of us decided to stay home to watch from our sofas (results weren't in until 5am for us), calling and texting each other to report our heightening excitement as the results rolled in. I was riding on a tidal wave of happiness after the election, but I wanted to wait to write. Perhaps it would just be a passing fad. But just two days ago I was in the fromagerie buying some very stinky cheese I wouldn't have dreamed about eating 3 years ago when a typical-looking French man was monopolizing the check-out cheese cutter's attention. He was so animated, his white hair poking out from underneath a black beret...and I wasn't listening at first, until he opened his jacket to reveal suspenders with American flags all over them! "Je suis fiér! C'est le premier fois que je les portes!"...."I am proud...it's the first time I'm wearing them!" He wasn't American. But I broke into a huge smile and told him how much I loved his suspenders. And that I, too, was proud. He congratulated me. And in fact, since the election results last Wed. I've been congratulated by French people, British people, a Kenyan friend, some Algerian girls...and my Angolan-Brazilian friend told me that he wanted to pack up and move to America. The world truly is still celebrating. But they're not just celebrating Obama. They are celebrating us, we Americans who made this decision, we Americans who showed the world that our voice is strong and that we truly ARE for progress, that we are interested in putting ourselves and our country on a different path. They are proud of us. And as an American citizen abroad, I can feel the shift in perception. Just this morning I passed by a store displaying Obama shirts in the window. "Hope" is the word written below an artist's depiction of his face. It's a week after the election, but I have no doubt that the shirts will remain. This energy is lingering, and I am happy to report being happy to say, "Je suis américaine!"